WASHINGTON (RNS) — A mile from where Republicans on Capitol Hill work toward passing a budget bill containing the biggest cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in history, one of the most prominent Christian anti-hunger groups has gathered to celebrate its 50th anniversary — and to figure out how to try to move the hearts of lawmakers.
“ We have to remind people in power that what happens to a poor child happens to you, because we are one body,” said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, academic dean for Fuller Seminary’s Centro Latino, to a gathering of Latino leaders that kicked off the event. “We need to pastor our representatives.”
Bread for the World launched its first letter-writing campaign in 1975, sending more than 100,000 letters to members of Congress on the right to have food. In the decades since 1970, when the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that about 35% of people in developing countries were undernourished, that hunger rate dropped to around 13% in 2015.
The organization has historically been able to count on support from both Democrats and Republicans for anti-hunger programs. Now, its members are worried about sweeping changes to U.S. funding for domestic and international nutrition programs.
The version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget passed by House Republicans would cut $290 billion from SNAP over the next decade, in part by reducing federal contributions to states’ SNAP programs and by increasing work requirements to access the …